Path 2

Times: Recession Leads to More Downscale Dating

February 12, 2009

The Times is getting on the recession-positive bandwagon we noted yesterday. They say that since the economy went down, more Americans have, too. “Online and offline matchmakers are reporting that dating interest is up, way up,” the paper says. Reporter Abby Ellin attributes increased activity at Match.com and other dating services to the fact that “unemployed and underemployed people have more time on their hands to surf the Web,” which suggests she’s never worked in a corporate office, and that online dating is cheaper than “financing a series of potentially stultifying meals with blind dates,” which in our experience is only true if you take a restaurant table too far from the door.

Also, “These days the sites seem to be attracting a more frugal crowd,” which only makes it sexier. “Dinner and a movie has turned into the early-bird special at Denny’s and a DVD from the library,” says an understandably single “technology entrepreneur.” Experts are consulted: “At a time when money is scarce or uncertain, when people are assessing their priorities, they don’t want to go through it alone,” says one, and who can disagree? When the heat’s turned off, you want at least one other person in your bed or cardboard box.

Add the already-observed uptick in sex workers and the at least undiminished frequency of action among those already having sex, and the only possible conclusion is that the collapse of capitalism is putting the “laid” back into “laid-off.” And people call us pessimistic! photo (cc) Jeremy Brooks.